Seriously: wearing sun glasses indoors is such a douche bag move. It’s the kind of thing that makes me want to pick fights with strangers – I just wanna knock that shit right off their face. What the fuck is wrong with these assholes? You don’t look cool. You look like a twerp.

Of course, I’ll give Dave Lombardo a pass. Why? ‘Cause he just might be the greatest metal drummer of all time. Duh.

So here’s Metal Injection‘s interview with Mr. Lombardo, which took place last month at Mayhem. Enjoy it, and disregard the skinsman’s decision to wear his shades in the middle of a windowless room.

-AR

Tomorrow night there will be a special listening party for Shadows Fall’s new album, Retribution, at Arrow Bar here in Manhattan. Arrow Bar is a cool place – they have heavy metal happy hour every Friday night (where you can often find either Vince or myself and other members of the NYC metal literati drinking until we find one another attractive), and was the spot of last year’s Second Annual MetalSucks/Metal Injection holiday fiesta. Plus, y’know, you’ll get to hear the new Shadows Fall album!

Unfortunately, Vince will be in Philly and I’ll be tending to some personal bidness, so there won’t be any representatives of the MetalSucks family on hand. But we have heard Retribution and can readily endorse it as another killer blast of metal from our favorite Massholes. My short review would be that band found a happy balance between the heavy heavy shit of yore (The Art of Balance, etc.) and the arena rock material that found its way onto Threads of Life: “My Demise” has one of the best guitar solos of the year and “War” will surely make you want to kill small animals, but “Picture Perfect” is one of the best Def Leppard songs that Def Leppard never wrote. This album has it all.

Be there or be square. I’m very sad I can’t go.

If you can’t make it either, don’t fret: Retribution comes out this Tuesday, September 15 on Everblack Industries/Ferret.

-AR

I’ve had some family shit distracting me this week, but there’s really no excuse for the fact that I somehow completely missed the debut of a new song by uber-supergroup Shrinebuilder. Entitled “Pyramid of the Moon” and streaming right here, it is just seven-plus minutes of sheer excellence.

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Our friend Sergeant D at Metal Inquisition has taken it upon himself to make a bold claim: that Six Feet Under’s “Amerika the Brutal” is the worst death metal song of all-time. The Sarge writes:

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This is a story about a band I don’t care about getting involved in some drama with a band I haven’t cared about in at least fifteen years. But it’s still kinda amusing, so I’m posting it.

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This is just a friendly reminder that one of the best tours of the year that MetalSucks isn’t actually associated with starts tonight. Hull. Batillus. Salome. What the fuck else could you want?

Get the complete tour itinerary after the jump. And don’t forget that you can download an awesome new Salome track, “With Hell for a Mouth,” absolutely free, right here.

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Is this website real? If so, it rules. If not, it still rules.

Join the fight. Even if you’re not a mother.

-VN

More crabcore. Don’t these kids realize that it’s never cool to copy something verbatim? Like, Attack Attack! did the crab-crouch thing; it’s retarded, but it’s their gimmick. Copying another band’s gimmick is even more retarded. Their name is retarded too, and I will most certainly not ever remember it. Fuck this band.

-VN

Yesterday’s post featuring Dokken in a Norton Anti-Virus commercial inspired longtime MS-faithful commenter Hibernum to post about another recent commercial done by a haggard ’80s rock band. Steve Grimmet of Grim Reaper fame did this bit with his solo band for Garmin Navigational Systems sometime back in 2007; at over two minutes, it’s practically a full-on music video made with a budget of about $3. And it’s made of pure win. I’m considering buying a Garmin GPS system even though I don’t have a car if it means that silver surfer dude will come around any time I’m lost… is there an iPhone version available yet?

Ride your Garmin, take on the world!

-VN

GOOD MORNING! I’ve got good news, very good news, great news, and really great news. Ready? Okay, here we go:

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Our bro-bros at Metal Insider have compiled some Soundscan and radio rankings from the world of metal last week for your perusal. The highlights:

Insane Clown Posse, Bang! Pow! Boom! (Psychopathic) #4, 50,000 sold
If the title of your new album closely resembles a song by the Black Eyed Peas, you might be a wigger.

Chevelle, Sci-Fi Crimes (Epic) #6,  45,500 sold
What Hollywood Undead is to ICP, Chevelle was to Tool. At least initially.

In slightly more encouraging news:

Pantera, Vulgar Display of Power (Atlantic Group) 780 sold
This is all digital sales – Amazon had a one-day sale of the album for $3.99. Not too shabby.

Get the full skinny on the rest of the charts over at Metal Insider.

-VN

MS Maniac Steve G. sent in a link to the Russian band Sumatra. Says Steve:

So I’m surfing around youtube watching stupid covers (it’s addicting), and there’s this one dude that is shredding the faceless, all shall perish and aftre the burial like I’ve never seen…he’s got guitar covers for almost all of their songs and they’re all near flawless. So it turns out this dude is some random guy from Moscow and he plays in a tech metal band. I don’t usually feel the need to share my obscure band info but I guess Ziltoid rubbed off on me and this was too random to resist…they’re not bad…check them out.

So, what do the MS faithful think? Do Sumatra get a yea or a nay?

-VN

Meet Meek is Murder, the new (by way of old) project featuring guitarist Mike Keller (ex-The Red Chord), drummer Frank Godla (Empyreon, Dividing Light) and bassist Sam Brodsky (sorry dude, I’m sure you were in some cool bands too but I can’t find any info about them). Here’s their new video for “Hope Springs Eternal”; as Kip might say, it’s batshit crazy. Bands this talented and creative don’t come along often. The song’s only 1:23 long, so just click and listen… what have you got to lose?

Meek is Murder’s debut album Mosquito Eater drops this fall.

-VN

Full confession: I missed my pre-show interview slot with Bigelf’s eccentric frontman Damon Fox because I fucked up with directions on the subway. I’ve lived in this city for 22 of my 27 years on this planet and it still happens from time to time… oops. Doesn’t help that the Beacon Theater, the host of this year’s Progressive Nation tour (Dream Theater, Zappa Plays Zappa and Scale the Summit in addition to the aforementioned), is in butt-fuck nowhere compared to our usual stomping grounds.

But it ended up for the better — missing the pre-show slot allowed me to see the phenomenally talented Scale the Summit, and seeing Bigelf for the first time immediately thereafter gave me a lot more material for my interview. After waiting patiently post-show whilst Fox signed autographs at the band’s merch booth for half a fucking hour, I was finally able to snag him for an interview. Fox is a smart guy who has a lot of strong, well-thought out opinions about metal, music, genre-labeling and the industry in general. We also chatted a bit about the band’s history and their recent surge in popularity.

Our interview started as many do with subjects who aren’t familiar with our website. “So, why DOES metal suck?” jabbed Fox, who clearly “gets it.”

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Whomever thought this up is a fucking genius.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

Aside from the obvious hot-chicks-playing-metal appeal of this video, these ladies fucking nail it, no?

]Thanks: Kyle]

I’d just like to take a moment to say THANK YOU SO FUCKING MUCH to the friend who sent us the link to the below video. He works in the biz and I think he wants to remains anonymous in case the opportunity ever arises to sign this kid, but he seriously made my day. Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!

-AR

I had kind of a stunning realization last night as I watched Alice in Chains blow the roof off Irving Plaza/The Fillmore/whatever the fuck it’s called now. It was during the second song of the band’s ninety minute set, “Again.” (The show opener was “Rain When I Die,” in case you’re curious.) New vocalist William DuVall (well at this point he’s not really new anymore, but I guess he’s new-ish) didn’t just sing the phrase “Again and again and again” – he belted it, jumping up onto the monitors to give himself just a little extra boost in the rockstar god department. Then, as it came time for him to grunt and signal the start of the “Doo-doo, doo-doo” sing-along section (and sing along the crowd did), DuVall lept off the monitor and started pumping his fist in the air, prompting the audience to do the same. As he finally turned to face drummer Sean Kinney, Kinney started grinning; and then the grin spread across the stage like an infectious disease, and by the end of the song, guitarist Jerry Cantrell and bassist Mike Inez were smiling, too.

And that’s when it hit me. It was kind of a morbid epiphany, especially for someone who held deceased vocalist Layne Staley in as high regard as I did, but it was an important epiphany for a fan who hopes to follow this band into their future. Here it is:

Layne Staley did not want to be with us here tonight.

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I’m not sure how Dokken ended up in this Norton Internet Security commercial; I mean, how fucking random can you get? Is there some inside joke that I’m not getting here – like does Don Dokken have some infamous chicken story akin to Led Zep’s shark incident? Or do the manatees that write Family Guy also do ad copy now?

Regardless of whatever the actual story behind this spot is, it tickles me so.

Boy oh boy do I bet that George Lynch wishes he was still in the band now!!!

If you’d like to see two other versions of this same commercial, head over to Blabbermouth.

-AR

In celebration of their upcoming tour — or perhaps just because they felt like it — Seattle post-metallers These Arms are Snakes have released a new digital single called “Washburn,” streaming exclusively at Spinner.com. The song, originally half of a super-limited edition split 7″ with All the Saints, is exactly what we’ve all come to expect from TAAS: jarring rhythms, angular dissonance, and intricate post-metal riffs in a raw, punk package.

Monsieurs Rosenberg, Wingerschmidt and myself are all going to attend the insanity that is a TAAS show on September 25th at a grimy, DIY Brooklyn venue called “Shea Stadium” (!!). That show will undoubtedly blow the frickin’ pants off the following night’s hang at the relatively pedestrian (but still awesome) Mercury Lounge in Manhattan… it’s gonna be “batshit crazy,” in the words of Mr. Wingerschmidt.

Full list of tour dates after the jump.

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